#careers

Some view the transition from engineer to manager as pure torture, others simply want to move up but just a few are truly aware of the benefits and risks of juggling passion for code and management responsibilities. How do you know if you are cut out to be an engineering manager?

There’s a famous saying by Roman philosopher Seneca which goes like this: “It is quality rather than quantity that matters.” This quote transcends time and industry and proves that countries such as the United States and India, famous for their huge number of programmers, are lagging behind in terms of quality. Curious to see which countries would take home the gold, silver and bronze medals?

We opened Pandora’s box because we wanted to know how developers really feel about interruptions. It turns out that interruptions (especially planned ones) truly are real-life kryptonite and they can hinder productivity. Developers weighed in on this issue on Reddit — so let’s see how they cope with interruptions.

It’s that time of the year again! According to Puppet’s newest DevOps Salary Report, “DevOps engineers, architects, software developers and engineers, and systems developers and engineers in the United States are more likely than not to make more than $100,000.” Let’s see what else is new.

People need roughly 23 minutes to go back to their tasks after a major interruption, but the plot deepens if you’re a programmer. Add at least 10 minutes to the forced break (the minimum amount of time you need to start editing code again) and there you go — that’s a solid half hour you lose whenever someone approaches you. It gets worse if that interruption is planned.

The million-dollar question about the level of productivity in software development teams is the following: How does their productivity scale with the team size? Forget everything you knew about the ideal team size. Are you familiar with the Ringelmann effect?

Finding a remote job may sometimes feel like you are looking for a needle in a haystack. Many websites have accepted the challenge of giving programmers an overview of what the market looks like and what companies are willing to hire talent without forcing them to move anywhere in the proximity of the mother ship, but that doesn’t mean they all deliver that promise. Let’s see which are the best places to find a programming job.

Creating software is an emotional process for the team members who all want to see it succeed, and this can create tension. The phrase “you have to pick and choose your battles” is commonly used. But how do you make those decisions?

In today’s competitive market, being a good designer is not enough; one must have the proper skills to thrive within a team. There are new devices, smart apps and social sharing techniques that teach us how to be better designers; if only it were that easy…

Software developers must indubitably have tech skills, but there is another popular set of abilities that is gaining momentum: soft skills. Technical know-how is one way of measuring how good a developer is, but soft skills are really the ones that help them receive the stamp of approval from the industry.

Internet of Things is rapidly becoming a central piece of the IT industry, so it goes without saying that the star of this growing topic of conversation, the IoT architect, may become one of the most sought-after roles.

There is no such thing as a recipe for success when it comes to climbing the professional ladder and developers are no exception. The lack of a well-defined route can hamper a developer’s journey from novice to master, but there are things you can do to help yourself.